


misery loves company

by ruzekhalstead



Series: luke & julie. [6]
Category: Julie and The Phantoms (TV)
Genre: F/F, F/M, Julie takes care of Luke, Sick!Luke, confessionnnnnnsssss, juke, then luke says the wrong thing and JULIE SNAPS, they're in love with each other and everyone knows it but them
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-28
Updated: 2020-10-28
Packaged: 2021-03-08 19:53:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,231
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27242245
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ruzekhalstead/pseuds/ruzekhalstead
Summary: "you're not about to tell me something like that and walk out, julie. that's not how this works."-slightly au (boys are alive)everyone knows luke and julie are in love with each other, except them. when luke gets sick with the flu, it becomes the little push they need.
Relationships: Alex & Willie (Julie and The Phantoms), Alex/Willie (Julie and The Phantoms), Julie Molina & Luke Patterson, Julie Molina/Luke Patterson
Series: luke & julie. [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1964599
Comments: 33
Kudos: 493





	misery loves company

**Author's Note:**

> hi everyone!!
> 
> this was a request from tumblr, so i hope you all enjoy!!

They were an hour into their band practice, and one thing was becoming increasingly obvious.

Luke was losing his voice.

At first, they thought he was trying something new; he always liked to experiment with what he could do and he was always practicing the levels of raspiness he could use, like he did in _Bright_. But by the end of the last hour, it was clear that wasn't the case.

"Luke, I love you bro," Alex started hesitantly, twirling his drumstick in his fingers. "But what the hell is happening with your voice?"

Luke frowned. "I hear it too."

"You seem to be sweating a lot," Julie noted and Luke raised an eyebrow. "Much more than usual. Are you feeling alright?"

"Of course I am. I don't get sick," he scoffed. He took off his guitar and placed it back in its stand, grabbing his hydro flask to rehydrate. In truth, Luke was looking a little pale, but denial was a powerful concept.

Reggie snickered, blanking his face when Luke turned to him with a stormy glare. "Either way, I think we should call it. You're sounding rough, my man."

Luke rolled his eyes in defiance, but Julie truly didn't like his colour. She walked over to him, setting her palms against his cheeks. He went slightly cross-eyed trying to look at her and question what she was doing. She placed the back of her hand against his forehead.

"Not sick my ass," Julie mumbled, "Luke, sit down, you're definitely catching something."

Luke's eyebrows furrowed together; the coolness of Julie's palms did wonders for his skin. "But I don't get sick!" He repeated in a whiny voice. Julie solely rolled her eyes and pushed at his shoulder so he'd fall back on the couch.

"You two should probably go," Julie redirected her words to Alex and Reggie, who looked confused and slightly offended (Alex). "Don't give me that look. You _three_ were the ones who refused to get the flu shot like I did, and now you're going to pay for it."

Reggie's eyes widened. "Luke has the flu?" They'd never seen him put his bass down so quickly. "Peace out buddy! I'm steering clear of you like the plague!"

"So, you're going to stay with him?" Alex asked Julie with a raised eyebrow; she nodded. "You hear that, Reg? _Julie_ is going to stay and take care of Luke! Isn't that just the cutest thing you've ever heard?"

Julie's gaze flickered between Alex and Reggie, who were both wearing devious grins. "I don't know what your tone is implying, but your presence is annoying me. Make yourselves useful and go get some medicine or something."

"She's touchy today," Alex whispered in Reggie's direction. He narrowly missed getting hit by the pillow Julie lodged in his direction. "Fine, I'm going! Don't do anything I wouldn't do!"

Reggie snorted, "that's not much then." Alex smacked him upside the head. "We'll be back! Feel better Luke!"

Julie wasn't an idiot. She clearly knew something had changed between her and Luke recently. Since the very beginning, it was hardly platonic. There was always that chemistry between them; they just didn't know where it would lead. And to be honest, she still has no idea. Things between them hadn't progressed in the way she wanted in the slightest. The only difference was that everyone seemed to suspect something was going on between them (re: Alex, Reggie, Flynn, Carlos and her dad), which explained Alex's smartass comments. But the most that had happened were small touches here and there as they wrote new songs. And their songs hadn't changed much either; she had been writing more romantically charged songs on her own, but every time she came together with Luke, he steered them in the complete opposite direction.

She honestly didn't know where she stood with him.

Luke was currently laying face down in a pillow, shivering. Julie rolled her eyes, almost certain it was because he refused to wear shirts with sleeves. She grabbed a blanket from the back closet and draped it across his shivering form. He turned his head to the side and peeked open an eye, mumbling a soft, "thank you." She took this opportunity to feel his forehead again, and he was still burning up; he groaned at the coolness of her touch.

"I'll be right back," she told him. He mumbled something unintelligible in response. Julie pulled up Netflix on the television and chose the first show that appeared (Modern Family because Alex was obsessed with Mitchell and Cameron, naturally). She escaped back into the kitchen where she grabbed a bowl filled with ice water and some small hand towels.

When she entered the garage again, Luke was sitting up on the couch, the blanket wrapped around his shoulders. His hair was matted against his forehead from the sweat and the angry pout on his lips nearly made her drop the bowl of ice water. "Julie," he groaned, beckoning her to come closer. "Is this what dying feels like?"

"You are such a baby," Julie snapped, sitting down across from him on the coffee table. Luke shot her an affronted look. "If I can go on with my day while Satan's ripping apart my uterus, you can handle the flu."

Luke looked as if he was going to retort, but a small smile appeared on his lips instead. "Yeah, you're right," he replied, "you're a badass, Jules."

"Don't I know it," she sighed, taking one of the hand towels and placing it against his forehead. He instantly leaned forward with a satisfied groan, resting his palms against her knees. They didn't have much room between the coffee table and the couch, and their knees knocked together. "How does that feel?"

"Like heaven," his eyes literally rolled into the back of his head. "Thanks for staying and taking care of me, Jules."

Julie dipped the cloth in the bowl to avoid meeting his gaze. "Yeah, of course," she muttered in response. "I'd do anything for you, you know that." She wasn't sure what prompted that confession, but now it was out there.

Luke’s gaze narrowed on Julie’s face, even though she was looking everywhere but into his eyes. “Yeah. I mean, me too. I just — you’re my best friend. Couldn’t do this whole life thing without you.”

She wasn’t expecting to feel anything when she heard the word friend. It should have been fine, because they are, in fact, best friends. But her chest constricted and she squeezed the cloth absentmindedly, dripping water onto Luke’s lap.

“Shit, sorry,” Julie apologized, avoiding eye contact as she bit her lip. She wasn’t generally a crier, but she _was_ unable to stop her emotions from displaying all over her face and she didn’t need him seeing that. She placed everything back onto the coffee table and hastily stood up. She knocked her knees against Luke’s and his hands fell from her knees as if his touch burned her.

Luke was confused. Julie flipped off like a switch, and he’s only seen that happen a few times before.

“Uh — what just happened? Did I say something?”

“No,” Julie forced out a laugh, “no. Everything’s fine.”

Luke frowned. He wouldn’t fall into the trap of basic girl talk. Again. “This seems like one of those situations where girls say everything’s fine, but it’s really not fine, and next thing you know, they’re cutting up all your clothes."

"You already do that," she shot back, pointedly looking at his absent sleeves.

"I know you're not complaining because you get to look at my amazing biceps every day. And don't think I didn't notice you're changing the subject."

Julie rolled her eyes, busying herself with grabbing the bowl and dumping it out in the bathroom sink. Luke followed her, groaning in pain. He looked like absolute hell; pale, sweaty and determined to get an answer out of her.

"Julie, talk to me, please."

She avoided his gaze, skirting past him. "There's nothing to talk about."

"Bullshit," he snapped. His eyebrows furrowed together and his signature pout adorned his lips; he was starting to get annoyed. "Are you forgetting I know you nearly as well as you know yourself?"

That small statement lit a fire inside of Julie. 

"Clearly you don't," she fired in response and Luke took a step back in surprise. "Because if you did, then you would know what's wrong. You would know that being your friend absolutely _sucks_ because that isn't what I want! I want more and _shit_ , I thought you did too!"

Everything came spilling out of her at once.

In any other situation, she would rather choke on pure air than confess her feelings for Luke, much less _like that_. But it happened. And now he was staring at her with wide, bewildered eyes, and Julie didn't know how she should go about it now.

So, bolting seemed like the correct option.

She was halfway to the door, when Luke grabbed her wrist and pulled her back. He was still pale and looking ghostly, but his eyes were shining bright as they focused solely on Julie.

"You're not about to tell me something like that and walk out, Julie. That's not how this works," he told her in a serious tone. All traces of his usual goofy nature were gone and Julie cursed herself for ever saying anything in the first place. Everything was too serious and too real, and she just didn't want to deal with it. "Don't you want to hear what I have to say?"

Julie pursed her lips, staring at his collarbone, rather than up at his face. "Not really. Can we just forget I ever said anything?"

"What if I don't want to?"

At this, Julie looked up. She was surprised to see his eyes focused solely on her; they softened when they met her gaze. "Julie, you mean the world to me. I just didn't want to do anything that would make things weird in the band. Plus, it's hard to know what you're thinking."

He still wasn't being exceptionally clear, and Julie wasn't entirely sure what to make of his statement.

"Well, I wasn't intending to say anything now either," she admitted quietly.

"I'm glad you did," he replied quickly. His grip on her wrist travelled down to hold onto her hand. "One of us should have the guts to admit how we feel about each other."

She hesitantly bit her lip. "You know, I haven't heard much of anything coming from you."

Luke's smirk widened. "You're right," he conceded. "I should probably let you know that I think you're the most beautiful girl I have ever seen and I've been into you since I first saw you in school. And I'd really like to kiss you right now, but I'm not entirely sure your flu shot will protect you from whatever the hell I have."

Heat instantly rushed into Julie's cheeks and she resisted the urge to shy away, because this was real and this was happening. "So, what does this mean?"

"Well, I guess I should start with asking you on a date."

For someone who avoided talking about their feelings for so long, he sure was doing a fantastic job.

"Julie, would you like to go out on a date with me?"

"Yeah, I'd love that."

Luke broke out into an excited smile, wrapping his arms around her and crushing her into his chest. He couldn't kiss her right now, but he sure as hell could show his affection in other ways. He pressed his lips against her temple, enjoying the quiet. He could feel his heart pounding in his chest, and he could hear Julie's breathing start to slow. It's been a long time coming, and he still wasn't where he wanted to be, but they were getting there.

Their quiet moment was interrupted when the garage door slid open forcefully.

"Reggie! It's happening! It's freaking happening!"

Luke groaned at the sound of Alex's voice.

"Reggie! Get your ass in here now!"

Julie turned to the door, staying tucked into Luke's chest.

Alex was shooting them an excited grin, slapping Reggie's bicep repeatedly when he finally joined them.

"Oh, _finally_! Carlos, get in here!"

Julie let out a squeak of indignation at the sight of her little brother staring down Luke.

"Well, it's about time," he said coolly, surprising both Luke and Julie. "Boys, I want my money by sundown, or _else_."

Reggie stared after him as he walked away, scratching the back of his neck when Julie sent him a withering glare.

"So, we may or may not have placed a bet on you two," Alex explained. He didn't seem sheepish in the slightest.

Luke chuckled. "Who's 'we'?"

"Literally everyone," Reggie replied.

"Carlos, Flynn, your dad — literally everyone," Alex smirked. "Honestly, you two are pretty clueless."

Julie hung on tighter to Luke, enjoying his warm embrace. She thought it might feel weird in front of their bandmates, but surprisingly, it didn't. The proud and giddy expressions on both Alex and Reggie's face was enough to relax her and help her realize that this was what she was missing all along.

"Yeah, we are," she mumbled with an upwards glance to Luke and his bright smile.

"Oh my god! I need to call Willie! We're going on a double date!"

**Author's Note:**

> im so soft for luke and julie confessing their feelings for each other
> 
> although, i definitely struggled writing this ending lmao so i hope it was okay!!!
> 
> stay safe everyone x


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